Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction Episode 2
by krisetchers
Summary: A second mix of stories with no logical explanation. Which have occured, and which never happened? Will your opinion tilt left to right as you decide which of these tales are fact or fiction?
1. Protector on the Court

**This is the second episode of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, which I decided to create. No theme for this episode yet, but enjoy this!**

* * *

The host appears behind one of the archways, walking his way to the center of the room. 

"When your opinion tilts from left to right, there could only be answer: Fact or Fiction."

* * *

_We live in a world where the real and the unreal lives side by side. Where substance is disguised as illusion and the only explanations are unexplainable. Can you separate truth from fantasy?__ Tonight, your challenge is to separate what is true from what is false. Five stories. Some real, some fake. Can you judge which are fact, and which are fiction? To find out, you must enter into a world full of truth and deception, a world that goes: beyond belief._

* * *

"How do you define fact? How do you define fiction? Can you ever be certain about these two, and what they contain? Maybe your beliefs will switch from side to side when you're exposed to consider what the truth could be. Five stories will be up to you to decide their realities. Did these really happen, or are they plain deception? But first, let's be introduced to some of our VIP members." 

Goombella: Hey! I'm ready for this show. I've never really actually seen any episodes of this show before, but it sounds awesome!

Mr. Blizzard: It's me! The main Mr. Blizzard. Happy to be here.

Josh: I'm here and ready to win!

Goombella: Who are you, human?

Josh: The name is Rocket. I'm here to win and test my knowledge against you other creatures from another world.

Toad: I'm just a regular blue-dotted toad. Followed Josh on his way home after I was beat up by some high school classmates.

Mr. Blizzard: You must have a soft spot for toads.

Josh: Poor guy couldn't defend himself.

Birdo: Birdo! I'm here and decked out in my favorite bow.

Josh: Your one and only bow, to be accurate.

Birdo: Birdo!

Goombella: Okay then…who else is left?

Birdo: I believe that's it. It's about time now to start.

(lights are dimming slowly)

Toad: Wait, why are the lights dimming? Ahh…it's so dark. And scary.

(the lights are semi-off, and the room is silent)

Goombella: How do we see these stories? Is there a television somewhere?

Host: Certainly---

All: AAAH!

Toad: Where the heck did you appear from? You scared us to death!

Host: Certainly, nobody can be sure about what is fact and fiction, and I'm pretty sure your opinion will be tilting from left to right when you decide the truths about these stories. Just like these sticks in this poster.

The illusion shows horizontal sticks going from left to right, stacked on top of each other. Each one is colored alternatively black and white, going across.

Host: How do these sticks go across the poster?

Josh: Obviously tilted.

Goombella: Yeah, they're not straight.

Host: Mistaken you guys are. They are perfectly going horizontal.

He gets a ruler and places it above one of the sticks. The edge of the stick lines exactly with the ruler, straight across the picture.

Josh: Oh…

Goombella: What? Wow, that's pretty tricky to see.

Birdo: You guys are so gullible. But I won't be like that.

Host: Your opinions will be like these lines; they seem tilted and unbalanced. But the truth would always remain the same no matter what you believe.

(he leaves to the other main room, while the lights dim even more)

Birdo: Spooky atmosphere to add to the show…

Mr. Blizzard: Is there an air conditioner in this room? It's way too hot in here now, huh?

* * *

Behind the host is a basketball hoop, standing straight up from its base. The host takes a basketball from the floor into his hands and dribbles it two times. 

"The sport of basketball has been so popular for generations. It's hard to imagine that it originated since the day a professor cut the bottoms of a peach basket out and pasted the bottomless baskets against the walls of a gymnasium. Now its popularity has gone up so much that it has become an official Olympic Sport in Germany, and has gained its most professional players known to date."

"Shooting hoops and practicing dunks is what every devotee of the game would be doing every day. Jimmy Fenkins is one of those young people planning to be an NBA champion winner someday. After school at 5:30, his brother would have the hardest of times bringing him out of the court to go back home. Jimmy felt that he could encounter almost any person he would meet on the courts after school, and wouldn't hesitate to challenge them to a friendly, yet competitive game. He felt that he knew every trick and shot of the popular activity. But when bullies encounter him one afternoon, Jimmy learns one more thing about basketball that he would never forget about."

* * *

**Protector on the Court**

_I had to admit, the court was turning into my new home. During my years in high school, I was obsessed with sports. Then I fell in love with basketball. I felt so dedicated during my first game, and I had so much gusto and skill that my coach couldn't help but tell me that I was a born athlete. _

_I couldn't imagine how my brother Spencer spent his life alive. No basketball, or not even baseball or soccer? Besides swimming, all he did was read and read. Someday he wants to be some wacko scientist mathematician, but I predict he'll become blind before he even reaches twenty. _

"The Equations of Rocketry," Jimmy read from Spencer's book. "Let me guess: E equals you're wasting time with all this nonsense?"

"Don't you have 9th grade math finals in two days?" he asked him. "I can see you have a basketball in your arm."

"Jimmy! Spencer!" said a voice from the stairs. It was their mother, rushing down with paper bags in her busy hands. She was wearing her usual business suit and was already running late for her usual meetings at her office.

"You're going to be late," she said, handing them each a bag of their lunch. "I really hope the bus didn't pass our house already. Is this like the third time this week or not you had to make the bus stop so that you could catch up with it?

"When is Dad coming home from Sarasaland?" asked Spencer. "I think he brought my laptop with him, and I really need it by Friday for this technology project---"

"Not until Saturday," she said speedily. "Now I'm going to be late for work if we don't leave right now. Remember that I have a meeting until seven tonight, so I want you to go directly home after school dismisses you."

"What?" Jimmy said in surprise. "Mom, I need to hit the court to practice on my skills. See this?" He threw the basketball into the air and caught it on one end of his shoulder, then made it travel its way across till it reached his elbow on his other side, before making it land right back into his right hand.

"You need to hit the books and work on your algebra," she replied smartly.

"Okay," he said in a dissatisfied tone. Jimmy's face suddenly dropped, disappointed. It was a face he only made when he wanted something from his mom or dad that they refused to give him, and he was good at changing his outer emotion to get onto their good side. His mother sighed, tired of how Jimmy always managed to get his way with she and her husband.

"Okay," she said, "Five thirty and that's it. The sun should be down by then, and you know I worry about you two when it's dark outside. Just be careful near the court today."

"Oh, mom," Jimmy said, chuckling. "I don't think we're in elementary school anymore."

_My mother was probably the best. Of course, there's this type of world-wide debate on whose mother on the face of this planet is the best. But at least she's the best and only mother Spencer and I would ever have. She was a real sweetheart and a religious one too._

Right besides the front door was a collection of small angel figurines on a shelf that Mrs. Fenkins would pray to whenever they planned to leave the house. Her life depended on her faithful religion beliefs that would bring her and her family closer to becoming successful people.

"…and please, dear God, protect my children as they spend today on their own, and send angels down to protect them this day in times of crisis and dilemma. Amen."

"Amen," said Spencer.

Mrs. Fenkins opened her eyes and turned to look at Jimmy besides her, who had his earphones still plugged into his ears. She immediately snatched them out.

"Oh, umm, amen I guess," he said quickly, "Amen."

* * *

_That day after school finished, we both immediately went to the basketball court. My home seemed so same and comfortable once again. There was that smell of asphalt. Well, I always thought that the familiar smell at the court was the blacktop. There were those usual games that were going at the six basketball hoops, and man, did I join one of those games faster than you could say 'Foul ball'. To tell the truth, they were the ones who invited me into their game. I guess they were impressed with my basketball skills I had been displaying those past days, and they knew I was a pro. I wouldn't call myself a pro yet however._

_I wasn't the only one every day who hung out there. Little Billy would be on his skateboard around the court, probably showing off his new tricks to his classmates. He would probably be the next skate boarding idol in the future._

_Then there's that pink boo girl in the sweater with her chalk set. I like her. No, I didn't have no feelings for her in that kind of way. I just liked her for her interesting attitude. She was unique, and she would be drawing giant chalk drawings all over the ground. Nobody complained about it. In fact, everyone thought they made the place look great all around. Right now, I couldn't see what she was drawing, but I knew she was starting with the feet of some drawing._

_And then there was Big Ike. Man, did everyone watch in wonder when he played. Every afternoon at 3:30 he would be shooting hoops for as long as I could remember. He was so tall; I bet he could have been able to see and spot this court all the way from China. Nobody could mistake him for any other huge student, for his shades would stick out in terms of identification. Those mirror shades prevented you from seeing Big Ike's eyes. His 20/20 eyes, I assume._

_In high school, he was the star player and never failed to amaze people. He was admitted to nearly thirty colleges, and everyone seemed to admire him._

"That's Big Ike," _my friend once told me the day I had first entered into the basketball court, as he pointed to the giant making a swift dunk shot in the air, spinning 360 degrees at the same time. _

_But just after his graduation, a car accident changed his knee and his life as well. Even after three operations, the doctors couldn't do nothing to help and get his knee back proper. So that's when his career ended so suddenly. He always wore this leather knee pad on his right knee that he could never take off._

_But that didn't cause us to lose our usual respect for him._

_I believe I had actually "talked" with once or twice during my three years of high school. He once retrieved my basketball after it had fallen into the ditch behind the court. It took me by surprise that he was willing to climb into that sewer-infested area just to help me get home on time. And then the smile he gave me afterwards had given me that trusting, safe feeling I would always remember about him._

_And then every day at 5:00, Big Ike would leave for his usual night job._

_

* * *

_

_It was getting dark quickly, just as my mom had predicted. I looked at the watch on my wrist and saw that it was already 6:00 P.M. _

"Isn't that Dad's watch?" Spencer had his backpack on, books in his arm as he looked over Jimmy's shoulder.

"You don't tell no one I have this," Jimmy told him as if he was saying a command. "And plus, I lost my own watch a few days ago."

"That watch is his Rolex GMT Master II watch," Spencer pointed out. "The watch of Dad's he specifically ordered never to touch in your life, unless you wanted to become the next contents of his home-made meatloaf."

Jimmy sighed in annoyance. "Well, you know what you little 7th grade nerd…why do you have everything up and ready with you as if you were ready to go home?"

"It's 6:00," he replied. "Mom said 5:30 and that's it, remember? And, the sun is setting behind the horizon."

"I still need fifteen minutes," Jimmy said, shooting a basket right into the hoop as it made a clean _swish_ sound. "And the sun is still out."

"It's getting pretty dark," said Spencer.

"So what do you want me to do about it? Can't you just go home by yourself?"

"I could," Spencer said. "But it's past the time Mom said to go home by. The bus is going to arrive any minute now, and the next stop is in like fifteen minutes."

"I'll be home in a jiffy, don't worry," Jimmy said, as he went to perform another throw from mid-court. Spencer shrugged as he turned to head back towards the approaching bus, as his brother stayed longer, shooting hoops and practicing all the skills he could think of.

_I knew I should have just gone back home with my brother, but I needed to stay and improve on my twists and turns. I was the only one left on the court, and for some reason, it made me kind of lonely and also made me think it was a bit pointless in being here at this time. When I went to glance at my watch again, it was 6:15._

_I was planning to make my last shot before going home. But just when I had made my final shot, another person had entered the court that I hadn't seen before. He rebounded the ball that had bounced off the basket._

"Umm, my ball," Jimmy said as the other kid dribbled the ball a couple of times. The other kid was a hammer bro., probably in a grade or two older than Jimmy.

"This is your ball?" he asked sarcastically. "I would have never guessed."

"Sorry man, I'd be willing to play a game with you, but not right now because I need to get home now," Jimmy told him. "Can I please have it back?"

"I think you can call it mine for now," the hammer bro. replied. "Guess I'll just go back to my own home and play with it for as long as I want."

"Come on man, I really---" The hammer bro. threw the basketball to another person on the court, but not towards Jimmy. Another hammer bro. was standing on the opposite side of the court with a smirk displayed on his face as he caught the ball.

"How about we sell this to you?" he suggested.

"Guys, stop it," Jimmy said uneasily. He was helpless against the two older kids around him, and he felt like just running away from the court without looking back. But he needed his basketball back.

"I think you should stop messing with us. Why not give us everything in your pockets for this ball?" the second hammer brother offered. Jimmy reached down at his own pockets, feeling his leftover lunch change money that he needed desperately to take the bus back home. These two kids were overpowering him, he thought. He felt the desperate want to escape safely with the ball in his hand, but willed himself to avoid any actions of temptation.

"How about a little catch with my knife?" said the first hammer brother, and as the two older kids laughed, Jimmy's blood seemed to freeze when the older kid pulled out a miniature pocketknife from his sweater pocket.

_What was he going to do? I felt too terrified to move or do anything, but I knew he was going to puncture my basketball and ruin it once and for all. As the ball sailed into the air from the second hammer brother towards the outward knife being held by his friend, I seemed to give up to the overwhelming bullying of the two kids as my eyes watched the flying ball in defeat and panic. _

The ball never reached the knife, but a pair of hands did. The hammer brother was suddenly covered by a large shadow out of nowhere that covered his entire body as he looked besides him at the giant holding the basketball in his hands. His mouth was agape and stunned.

_I couldn't actually believe it. Big Ike was standing right there, his mirror shades on his eyes and my basketball safe and away from any danger in his large hands. A huge smile entered my face as I knew that he had entered into my hopeless situation at the last second. I was sure it was him at the first sight of his knee cap._

"Some problem going on?" Big Ike asked in his gruff voice.

"No! Uh, no problem," the hammer brother stammered, fumbling with the small knife in his hand before putting it back into his pocket. "We're all cool." His friend from the other side nodded in unison.

"That's not what it looked like," Ike told him. "I was watching this whole time, and I saw what you insensible bullies were doing to this innocent kid. Those kinds of actions you just pulled off right now can never bring you into becoming a professional player, and mark my words on that." The two hammer brothers both looked down at the ground, both ashamed.

"Hey, Jimmy," Big Ike said, as he passed the ball over to him.

_I wanted to say something to Big Ike right there, something as simple as the word "thanks". But all I did was nod, my pathetic way of saying thanks to a person who had just rescued my butt from further disaster and torment. I ran out of the court with my backpack and basketball as quickly as I could without looking back._

Big Ike turned back to look at the two kids.

"I don't want to see any of you messing around these places no more," he ordered. "You hear me?"

"Yes, Big Ike," they both replied as rapidly as possible, "Yes sir!" The two older kids went their own way across the street after that.

* * *

_The next morning, I couldn't help but tell my brother about the incident that happened at the basketball court last night. Big whoops. He even threatened to tell mom how I arrived back home just before she drove into our driveway. He also threatened to tell how I had taken Dad's watch with me to school. But it was all on one condition._

"Your big ass was saved from good ol' Big Ike," he explained to him. "And you didn't say thank you?"

"You know how difficult it is for me to talk to others," Jimmy said, "And I tried my best."

_But I made up my mind. Right after school finished, Spencer and I went straight to the basketball court. I saw Big Ike, shooting his usual hoops with his regular mirror shades and that kneecap on his knee. Spencer and I slowly approached him while he made his slam dunk, until he noticed us standing next to him. He caught the ball and stopped to look at us through his dark sunglasses. _

"Yo, what up?" he asked, seeing the two kids right in front of him trying to get his attention.

"Umm, hey," Jimmy said, not sure what to say next. Spencer who was right besides him nudged him with his shoulder, and that's when he knew what to say next.

"Thanks a lot for helping me against those kids," Jimmy said. "I didn't know how to thank you, but now I'm showing you how much I appreciated it." All Ike did was stay put where he was standing.

_Big Ike didn't reply immediately. I suspected that I had said the wrong thing to say in my note of thanks and felt embarrased for a split second, until he suddenly replied back._

"Helped you? Against kids?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowing. "When was this supposed to happen?" Jimmy and Spencer exchanged glances

"Yesterday, right here on the court," Jimmy explained, "Don't you remember?"

"Remember?" Big Ike questioned. "I can't follow where you're leading this."

"Last night, when it was getting dark," said Jimmy in a confused voice. "At around 6:15, you saved me from those bullies. That kid with the knife who tried to take my basketball, and all that." Big Ike's face was as perplexed as ever, as he went to remove the mirror shades from his eyes.

"Have you ever seen me around here after five?" he asked him. "I go to my night job every day, and that's especially including yesterday."

"But, you were the one yesterday who helped---"

"Listen," said Big Ike. "You must have gotten some other person mistaken for me. You must have been dreaming." He went on and ran up to the hoop to shoot another one of his dunks, as Jimmy had nothing else to do but look away in misunderstandment.

"Gee, you must have been really light-headed or something to mistake someone else for Big Ike," his brother said, laughing. "Since when would anyone be capable of doing that?"

"But I'm sure it was him!" Jimmy said in a voice of confusion. "He had those one-way shades on, and that, that kneecap on his right knee! And also…I remember him saying my name and giving the ball to me." Spencer looked at him with doubt.

"Man bro, I don't know what to tell you," Spencer told him. "But let's go home and check out that new game that arrived in the mail this morning." As Jimmy took his last look back at Big Ike on the court, the two of them headed towards the bus stop.

_I was sure it was Big Ike who had helped me from those older kids yesterday. But if it wasn't him, then who was it?_

"Look," said Jimmy suddenly, as they both stopped in their tracks. They looked at the ground and saw the chalk drawing that the girl in the sweater had drawn yesterday after school, but this time it was completely finished. It displayed a tall figure, a basketball player with a blue jersey on, but that wasn't all it had. Behind the basketball player were two sprouted wings coming out from his back, colored with a pale and elegant white chalk color the girl had used, and as they stared at it longer, they started to wonder even more.

_Who was that other person? The question had bothered me for years, but now, I finally think I know the answer._

* * *

"Records showed that Big Ike did arrive at his night job on schedule, before the event at the basketball court took place. So then who did Jimmy see on the court that rescued him from the brewing trouble? Could it have been another person who looked just like Big Ike? But then why did the other two bullies claim themselves later on that they had been interrupted by him? And what other person, according to all three who were at the scene, would be wearing mirror shades and a leather knee pad?" 

"Did the chalk drawing represent a deeper meaning to this story? Perhaps an angel was sent down as a protector for Jimmy, just like his mother had prayed for, and at the same time, had taken the form of the admired basketball player to protect him from any danger. Does this story seem true to you, or do you think the truth _swishes_ down on the false side?"

The host turns around and shoots his basketball, which makes its way perfectly into the net.

_We'll tell you if this story is true or false at the end of our show. Next, a girl's diary is all about what's yet to come, on Beyond Belief, Fact or Fiction._

* * *

** I changed the formatting to include the VIP members' comments at the beginning of the next chapter, so I hope that's fine. Stay put for the next story!**


	2. Deadly Diary

**Second tale!**

* * *

Toad: Wow! So are we supposed to guess if this story was true or false? 

Mr. Blizzard: I guess so. That story seemed very odd.

Goombella: I really think it might be true, because it's possible that they had mistaken somebody else.

Birdo: Hmm, but the witnesses said that they saw his knee cap. I think this is fiction

Josh: With the researched knowledge I have read, there are such things as Guardian Angels. They exist.

Toad: Okay, I'll go with Josh

Mr. Blizzard: I'm think this story is pretty much fiction. I mean it might have happened, but I don't believe so. FICTION

Goombella: Meh. FACT

Birdo: FICTION

JOSH: FACT

TOAD: FACT

Host: Phew! I mean, thank you all for your vote. We could not have continued earlier due to one of you members having some slight problem, rather unknown and overall just plain confusing. Your vote was delayed.

Birdo: What do you mean?

Host: Never mind. Enjoy.

(lights dim)

Toad: Aww, not again…

* * *

The host is sitting on a large wheelie chair, the type that would be spotted at the head of an office conference table. As he turns to face front, a laptop is seen right on his lap. 

"Many people are known to have secret diaries in their possession. And not only are the contents of the diary kept a secret from others, but so is the existence of the diary itself. Back then, diaries were just books that people would write in with ink. Today's modern technology and next story uses a laptop to hide a person's deep secrets."

"Wendy Pledikt, a young toad, keeps her diary entries on her own laptop. She's considered the outcast in her school for having a mysterious power that others can't seem to grasp. But what she is about to see would threaten the lives of two other girls, who plan to expose the secrets within her computer."

* * *

**Deadly Diary**

_Whenever I type on my computer, I know exactly what to write. I don't write things about me most of the time. In fact, I write a lot about others, mostly my classmates. That's why they think I'm weird and that's the reason I don't have that many friends. I can see stuff that didn't happen yet._

_I remember saying a prediction relating to my teacher a year ago in ninth grade, during English class. That's when people started to dislike me instead of just ignore me. When I said that the teacher Mrs. Travis' dog would die, people laughed. Then the next day, her dog did die. I couldn't ignore the talking behind my back after that, and my teacher even sent me to a lower-leveled English class after that day. I felt so dejected._

_Then a month after that, I told my science lab partner about a vandalism I was seeing at school in the future. My lab partner was a person last year I thought I had been a true friend of. But she had been playing with me the entire time, and after I had told her what I predicted, she blurted it out to the entire grade. It turned out that a person bombed a section of the school the next day, and that's when the insulting occurred for a week. I remember crying to myself during the seven hours of school days as the words "weirdo" and "freak" started to fly down onto me like bricks. After that, I was always alone. That's when I got my laptop and decided to keep all my secrets on it without letting anyone find out._

"That is so stupid!" said Sara Eiferman the Amazee Dayzee, who was walking down the quiet street that Wendy lived on. Right besides her was her best friend, Jenna Fleishman the pink Yoshi. They were two of the most popular girls of Sighkick Trewood High, and it was their attitudes that made them so popular ever since Elementary school. It was Saturday around noon, and the two of them were out of plans for the day.

"Like, who would want to do the play project on stupid Egyptians writing on papaya paper?" Sara said. "Alexia is so brainless. What a geek."

"You said it," replied Jenna in agreement. Then she stopped and looked besides her, right at the house of Wendy's.

"Isn't that the house of that freak, in our Social Studies class?" she asked Sara, pointing to the average-sized house that had a number eleven on it.

"I remember her being in this lawn," Sara answered back, "Wasting her time with her usual gardening of the plants."

"Yeah, I remember the number eleven when we went trick or treating last week," Jenna remembered.

"I think I have an idea," said Sara with grin, as she told her friend excitedly.

_I heard the voice of Sara calling for me from the window. It was rare to see people from my school wanting to see me, especially people who were so popular. Sara and Jenna were the most known people of Sighkick Trewood High school and I immediately walked up to the window to see the two of them walk up to my house._

"Hey, Wendy!" Sara called out to her, as Wendy opened the window to look at them. They both had smiles on their faces that felt the slightest of welcoming to her.

"Wendy!" Jenna called out once again, even though they were already aware that they had already received her attention. Wendy just stared at them with a look of interest.

"Since you can see the future, can you guess what will happen in the next few seconds?" Jenna asked her. Wendy looked at them with perplexity.

"Too late, loser!" Sara shouted. They both pulled out their right hands from behind them to reveal two white eggs grasped in their hands. As Wendy stepped back in alarm, they both threw their eggs at the window directly at her with full force. With quick reflexes she was able to close the window shut right when one of the eggs maimed her glass window and splattered yolk and shell over it. She was stricken with shock as she looked through the slimy mess on the window, seeing the two girls laughing, walking slowly off of her lawn.

_I was not sure why, but I didn't hate them. I hated myself for being different. As I just stood there trying to hold back any anger or tears that might appear suddenly any second, I decided to replenish myself by taking a walk to the pharmacy store five minutes from my home. _

"Did you see that look on her face when we took the eggs out from our backs?" Jenna exclaimed, laughing. "Priceless!"

"It's too bad she closed the window just when the egg was about to hit her," said Sara, as if she was actually disappointed that it had missed her face. "What is she, some supernaturally-reflexed creature?"

They heard a sound behind them, and the door opened to reveal Wendy walking off wearing her long coat. The two girls rapidly ran behind a bush in caution as Wendy walked out towards the street. They both took a sigh.

"I think she's planning to go somewhere special," Jenna said, "All by herself. Boohoo."

"Who cares if she goes to a stripper house or what not?" said Sara. "Now that we're here, all I want to do is…"

The both of them looked at each other in exhilaration. "The computer!"

"Remember when she brought her laptop to school once?" remembered Jenna. "Joe Frappollo tried to spill his lemonade all over it."

"And those damn reflexes again!" Sara hissed. "I bet she's majoring in reflex skills at her Witchcraft classes."

"Does she even go to witchcraft school?" Jenna asked her.

"I'm kidding, dumb head," Sara replied. "Now, let's find a way to get inside this shack." As Wendy disappeared from sight, the two of them snuck to the front door, only to find it locked securely. But there was always other ways. They tried the windows, then went to the side of the house and tried opening other windows. But they were either too high or not able to be opened from the outside.

"The back door," noticed Jenna. They both saw the back door, and through the glass they could see that it led directly into the living room. As they tried to open it, they unexpectedly turned the knob fully.

"I can't believe she left this door open," Sara scoffed, as they both entered into the house. "If I were a robber I would go on a stealing spree right now."

"The computer!" Jenna exclaimed. On the dinner table was Wendy's laptop, the screensaver displayed on it. As they both went over to it, they moved the mouse and saw the login screen.

"_Wendy_," Sara read. "_Password_?"

"Try the password hint," suggested Jenna.

"_Password Hint_," Sara read even more, "_My name_. My name?! Ha!" She typed in "Wendy", and a welcome logo popped up. As the girls did a little victory dance, the icons were loaded faster than they expected.

"Click on 'Diary'," Jenna said with a grin. As they clicked on the icon on the screen with a book with 'Diary' labeled beneath it, a page of documents popped up immediately.

"Is this like Microsoft Word?" wondered Sara. "It looks really different."

"Hey, read this," pointed out Jenna. "'Date: 11/2/07.'"

IT WASN'T FAIR FOR MICHELA. ASHLEY CHEATED ON THE SCIENCE REPORT AND RECEIVED THE AWARD CERTIFICATE.

"She's saying Ashley cheated for that prize?" Sara said, looking besides her at Jenna. "What a liar. Michela lost fair and square."

"There's a lot more," said Jenna, as she scrolled down further. "It's about the others at school.

"POOR FRANK. HIS BROTHER IS GOING TO BE VERY SICK THIS YEAR, AND HE WILL MISS A LOT OF SCHOOL DAYS BECAUSE OF IT.

"Aww, how sad," Sara said in a voice of sarcasm and pity

I DON'T THINK TREVOR IS A NERD. HE IS PLANNING TO BECOME THAT FAMOUS SCIENTIST HE WOULD BECOME WHEN HE GROWS UP.

"Uh…" was all Jenna could say. "Is she stalking all these people?"

"More like seeing their private futures," Sara explained.

MRS. EVES IS GOING TO BE FIRED SOON. LOTS OF CHILDREN WILL BE DISAPPOINTED, AND SO WILL I.

"No, not Mrs. Eves!" said Jenna, looking at the screen. "Like, she's my favorite Latin teacher, and when she's gone I'll---" She turned to see Sara looking at her, her eyebrows furrowed with a face that seemed to say, 'You think this is true?'

"I mean, of course that's all what she believes," Jenna explained rapidly. Sara's faced calmed down.

"So, she has all this stuff about these other students in here," said Sara. "Are _we_ in here?" At right timing, there was a name at the bottom of the page that caught their eyes, as they both read the entry.

SARA WAS TALKING TO HER BOYFRIEND NATHAN YESTERDAY. POOR SARA, I DON'T THINK THEIR RELATIONSHIP WILL LAST TOO LONG ANYMORE.

"What?" Sara exclaimed in disbelief, "What is she saying about me and Nathan? Wendy's such a jerk."

"That's what she thinks," Jenna reminded her quickly, hoping that her friend wouldn't become too offended. "I mean, it can't really be true."

"Well, she can think whatever she wants to think in her own stupid mind," Sara said in a tone of exasperation. Suddenly, she looked up from the screen and out the window to see Wendy walking towards the house with a bag in her hand.

"Oh my gosh, she's back!" she whispered. Without bothering to turn of the laptop or x-out the page, they opened the back door and went out as quickly as they had entered. Wendy opened the front door and set her stuff down, then looked at the laptop on her table.

_I saw my laptop on the table, and saw that my Diary program was open and that the screensaver was not displaying. But I remembered logging off before I had left the house. I couldn't assume anything, and it gave me that creepy feeling that I didn't like._

* * *

"Now Latin will suck," said Jenna gloomily, walking up to the microwave to remove the popcorn she had overheated for too long. Sara was opening up a DVD container as she inserted the disc into the player. 

"Well, changes aren't _that _bad," Sara said as she turned around. "But let's forget about that. Movie starts at eight o'clock in the Eiferman house."

"Poor Mrs. Eves," Jenna couldn't help saying. She emptied the container of popcorn into the bowl she had gotten out from the dishwasher, and walked over to the couch with the bowl in her hands. Sara looked at her in panic.

"Where did you get that bowl?" she asked.

"The…dishwasher?" replied Jenna.

"We used that pink bowl yesterday to carry an injured bird in!" Sara explained. Jenna made a face of disgust as she went her way back to the kitchen.

"Well, thanks for telling me earlier," Jenna said sarcastically.

"Telling you that dirty dishes are in the dishwasher is a pointless fact to remind someone," Sara said back. "Just pop another popcorn box in the microwave and use a clean bowl this time." Jenna did so as fast as she could. They needed to watch the movie and she needed to get home by ten.

After an extraneous time of ten minutes had passed by, the making of the second bowl of popcorn took longer than Jenna had thought it would take. She entered the living room to see Sara, talking on the phone as loud as she could.

"You freakin' idiot!" Sara shouted towards the cell phone in her hand. "You can't make this up! That was the reason I wanted to be with you in the first place, you moron! No, Nathan, you're out! Shut up!" She threw the phone down onto her lap and turned it off, sighing heavily. Then she turned to Jenna, who had an amazed look on her face.

"What?" she asked her. "Used another dirty bowl by accident? It's already 8:10."

"Was that Nathan?" Jenna asked her in curiosity.

"Yeah," she answered. "It was that self-centered ass who called me. Why do you care?" Then her face suddenly matched the look of Jenna's.

"Yeah," Jenna said. "Remember what she had said about you breaking up with Nathan? And Mrs. Eves being fired? It all came true." Sara's surprised face turned into a look of disgust, as she pressed the play button on the DVD remote.

"You don't _actually_ believe she's a psychic, do you?" said Sara. Jenna didn't reply, nor did she shake her head in any way. In the inside she knew that Wendy was indeed a person who could see future events that never happened, but she refused to tell Sara she believed in such stuff.

"Okay, she has good hunches," Sara pointed out. "And you know what? We will go to her house first thing in the morning, and we will see her online diary again to see what other stuff she's guessing."

"Get into her house again?" Jenna repeated in doubt. "I bet she locked the back door already."

"And I bet she didn't even know we even entered her home," replied Sara. They both settled into their chairs and enjoyed the movie that night: The Sixth Sense.

* * *

The door knob turned fully once again as Sara and Jenny walked into the Pledikt house the next morning. Right on the table was the laptop, directly where it was the previous day. 

"I don't think we should be doing this again," Jenna said, almost to no one in particular. "Not to mention that Wendy and her parents are probably upstairs sleeping."

"Relax," Sara said. "Let's just see what else she had written down last night." She logged into the account of Wendy and opened up the diary icon as quickly as she could.

"Look, she wrote entries for yesterday, date 11/3/07," said Sara in excitement.

SNOW DAY ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER SEVENTH. BOOK REPORT NOT DUE TILL THURSDAY.

"That's one reason it's good to believe that her predictions are accurate," Jenna joked. But then the next entry below made Jenna wish she hadn't of said such a thing.

I SEE SOMETHING BAD HAPPENING. THERE'S SMOKE ALL OVER THE PLACE.

SMOKE IS COVERING THE ENTIRE AREA.

SMOKE ALL OVER JENNA'S HOUSE.

Jenna's face was stricken with fear as she looked at the words in alarm. Even Sara seemed a little startled as she read the entry.

"No," Jenna said. She looked further down the page and saw no more entries Wendy had written.

"She's tricking you," said Sara, who was already jumping to conclusions too fast. "She probably knows that we had snuck here yesterday and read her computer. What a cruel hag."

"I'm not sure," Jenna said, turning to face the back door. "I need to go home now, just in case." She picked up her bag and opened the back door, and without saying goodbye she left as fast she could. Sara stared at the computer screen in silence, wondering what could be going on with Wendy's diary entries. If there really was a problem at Jenna's house, she thought, and then something was definitely out of the ordinary.

Sara was at her house preparing lunch when she picked up the ringing phone. It was unusual for her because the home phone was never really contacted by other people. Others usually called her family members and her through their cell phones.

"Hello?" she answered. "Hello? Oh, Jenna. No, nothing. Do you want to see…what? What is it?" Her face was suddenly full of immediate worry.

"There was a large fire that destroyed a lot of our possessions," Jenna whispered through the phone. "A bunch of furniture, a TV set, water pipes all over the place are broken, and my cell phone is nothing but ash. There's a giant hole in our home now that's exposing us to the cold." She paused.

"Wendy knew this was going to happen," Jenna finally said. "There's no use denying the fact that she can see the future. She knows the fates of all of us."

"Well, if she can know all about this stuff that hasn't been yet to come," Sara replied back, "Then maybe she won't be the only one making use of it."

* * *

_I couldn't control it. I could see the future events happen before my eyes, and I felt like it was my duty to record each and every prediction I had. Then, I had suspected that Sara and Jenny were sneaking into my house to read my diary and its contents. I knew that what they were doing was wrong, but I couldn't stop them._

_But the feelings that controlled my body were too overwhelming the night of Jenna's house fire. I felt something worse was going to happen to Sara and Jenna, something sinister and deeper than anything that I had predicted before. And I needed to stop it from coming. It was lucky than the two of them decided to drop by my house._

"Hello?" Wendy answered as she opened the door. Sara and Jenna were standing there with huge smiles on their faces.

"Umm, hi," Wendy said, confused on why they had arrived at her house thirty minutes after school had ended.

"Hey, Wen," said Sara.

"Hi!" said Jenna.

"I know we haven't really been that best of friends all the time," Sara explained. "So we're really sorry." Wendy just looked at her, surprised.

"I know we had been really mean witches on Saturday," Jenna told her. "But now we apologize. And that, all is forgiven, right?"

"Yeah, umm, sure," said Wendy, not sure what to say. "Sure!" Sara and Jenna's smiles grew even more.

"Do you want to come inside?" Wendy asked them. The two of them exchanged glances.

"Sure!" they said simultaneously. The three girls went into the house.

* * *

It was only a mere five minute visit. Sara and Jenna opened the door to leave the house, but were stopped by Wendy. 

"I'm going out of town to do this Science study for school," said Wendy. "I'm not sure if Mrs. Margolis told the school nurse if I was going to be out tomorrow, so…do you mind at all if you can just tell the nurse tomorrow that I'm out?"

"Of course not!" said Jenna. "You are so lucky to miss school."

"Wait, when are you leaving?" Sara asked her.

"Today at six," Wendy said. "I'm actually going to sleep over at a hotel tonight with my parents. I guess I am lucky." Sara's eyes gleamed with thankfulness.

"Okay, see you!" said Sara. The two of them walked down the front steps slowly, as Sara's mind raced with ideas.

"Bye!" Wendy called out. For some reason, she felt the slightest bit of acceptance. Two popular girls had just apologized to her for their actions, and even visited her house to say sorry. Wendy started to think that perhaps Sara and Jenna weren't really as bad as she thought they were. But of course, she wasn't aware that they had just been playing with her.

That day before leaving, Wendy turned on the computer and wrote a single entry in her diary. She typed nervously, in fear and as anxious as ever. When she was done, she left her computer on the table, unlocked the back door, and left with her parents out of town.

* * *

"I really think we should stop this," Jenna said cautiously, as they entered Wendy's house for the fourth time in three days. There on the table was Wendy's laptop. 

"That dwit left her computer at home?" Sara said in disbelief. "And she left the charger too! Just how lucky can we be?"

"No, we shouldn't be doing this at all," Jenna realized. "We can't expose all of this in class."

"Listen," Sara said, almost in a snapping voice. "There is _no _harm. She'll be blamed for everything. We'll arrive tomorrow Tuesday morning and bring this laptop to first period Social Studies."

"And we're going to present tomorrow?" Jenna asked. "How do you know that?"

"I'm sure we will, so be quiet," ordered Sara. "We'll say we used Wendy's laptop to make our slideshow. Then, we'll hook the overhead projector with the laptop and all that techno junk, and whatever is on the screen would show on the whiteboard."

"And that would be…the diary entries?" Jenna said in confirmation.

"Wait till everyone sees!" said Sara excitedly. "All this private stuff about classmates that Wendy wrote. The diary would finally be exposed! I bet Mr. Hosser would get really upset and possibly tell the principal."

"But wouldn't we get in trouble?" Jenna wondered out loud.

"It'll look like an accident when we expose it," Sara said. "We'll be fine."

The two of them packed up Wendy's laptop, and through the cold night they went back to their homes with the device in their possession.

* * *

"Presentation time!" Mr. Hosser the Social Studies teacher announced. A number of the students in the class groaned. 

"Every one of you tenth graders had a partner and an entire week to complete this," Mr. Hosser said in a tone of notice. "I don't expect any malfunctions, incompleteness, or unprepared teams to present their slideshows. With that, who would like to go first?"

A fraction of the thirty students had indeed not finished their project with their partners, and they either looked to the ground or pretended not to hear the teacher. Nobody expected Sara to raise her hand confidently in the air.

"Sara Eiferman, you courageous scholar," Mr. Hosser said jokingly.

"We need to hook up this laptop onto the overhead," Sara told him, getting the laptop up from the floor. "Can you do that?"

"Why, shouldn't you have saved your work onto the website?" Mr. Hosser said in a bothered voice.

"The website was down yesterday," Jenna thought up quickly. "Right, guys?" They turned around to the others, who knew exactly that the girls wanted them to reply in agreement. They did so, the thirty of them speaking and nodding at the same time.

"Really?" Mr. Hosser questioned. "Well then, I suppose that really isn't the fault of your two." The teacher did all the hooking up as the two girls looked at each other.

"This is it," Sara whispered. "Now the diary of Wendy mystery will finally be no more of a secret." Jenna looked back at her in uneasiness.

"Done!" he said, pluggint he last wire into a part of Wendy's laptop. "Now present before the class ends. Chop chop!"

They turned on the laptop, and everything on it showed up on the screen. Then when the login screen appeared, the class started to murmur at the name, 'Wendy'.

"Hey!" called out Joe Frappollo from the back of the room. "That's Wendy's laptop, isn't it?"

"Oh yeah, she was _soo _nice enough to let us borrow it," Jenna said with a smile. "Both of our computers broke down, and she gave us hers to use for the week."

"So, where did we save our work?" said Sara in a fake voice of puzzlement.

"Umm, I forgot!" Jenna replied in the same tone of confusion. "Wasn't it on one of those confusing programs?"

"Hmm, I really think we saved it on Power Point," said Sara, clicking all over the place. The class slumped back in their chairs in boredom.

"Oh, I just forgot," Sara said in a forgetful tone of voice.

"Girls," said Mr. Hosser. "If you have trouble 'locating' your slideshow, perhaps another group would be willing to go first instead, while you search."

"Wait no, I got it!" Sara exclaimed, and with a grin of evil on her face she knowingly clicked on a blank icon with no name. Documents flooded the page as the class watched in confusion. The word 'DIARY' was written across the top, with the date 11/6/07.

"That's Wendy's diary!" a girl exclaimed from the front row. The other students were suddenly refreshed in curiosity as they looked. Sara had created the program to automatically scroll down on itself, so the class could get a look at all the entries.

"Whoops, I think that was the wrong button!" Sara said. "But wait! What is this?"

"Excuse me, but what is going on?" questioned Mr. Hosser, looking at the words on the screen. The class was fully engaged.

CONNIE IS GOING TO BECOME AN ACTRESS WHEN SHE GETS OLDER. HOWEVER, THIS WOULD CAUSE PROBLEMS IN HER FAMILY.

"What the heck?" Connie the toad shouted from the back of the room. "Why is she writing about me?" The class started to laugh.

JAMES IS ALWAYS WANTING TO GET RACHEL'S ATTENTION. TOO BAD, HE'S GOING TO BE DISAPPOINTED.

A koopa troopa in the front row turned beet red, as the class erupted in laughter.

"Stop this, right now!" demanded Mr. Hosser.

"I, I don't know how to!" Sara said falsely. She pretended to be trying to X-out the page and do anything she could to close it. "This is Wendy's laptop!"

Secrets after secrets were exposed. The students were a loud mess, laughing and shouting as more words were shown on the overhead. As Sara hid her enjoyment, Jenna still felt that what they were doing right now was beyond wrong. It seemed prohibited in some strange way.

ANDRES IS GOING TO FAIL PHYSICS. I FEEL SORRY FOR HIM.

HANNAH WILL ATTEMPT TO LEAVE HOME TOMORROW BECAUSE HER MOM WOULD NOT APPROVE OF HER SCHOOL GRADES.

SOPHIE WILL BE EMBARRASED SOON WHEN SHE GETS CAUGHT CHEATING IN SOCIAL STUDIES.

"What a freak!" shouted a student.

"Wendy's definitely a witch!"

"I knew she was a type of species from another world."

"I want that laptop shut off right now!" Mr. Hosser demanded angrily. The screen scrolled down even further to reveal an entry not written by Wendy, but by Sara that morning. Jenna looked away in discomfort.

MR. TED HOSSER IS SUCH A BAD TEACHER. HE WILL BE FIRED AFTER I FALSELY ACCUSE HIM FOR ASSAULTING ME.

"Whoa!" exclaimed a student. Sara smiled deviously, as Mr. Hosser's face turned to a stunned one. The students were laughing uncontrollably.

"I am reporting this laptop and its contents to the head office!" he shouted. "Turn it off, right now!" Sara turned to Jenna with an amazed smile of how great their plan had gone. But Jenna was at the edge of worry.

"This is wrong," she said quietly. Sara could barely hear her over the intense sounds as Mr. Hosser picked up the phone and exited the room to talk outside in fury. With the teacher out of the room, Sara suddenly burst out laughing herself.

"She's a freak! A witch!" Sara shouted. The class was still sucked into their laughter as further entries were shown. Sara laughed with them, not stopping in any way possible as all but Jenna laughed away in unison. She looked besides her at Jenna again and expected to see that uncomfortable look of hers. But her look was beyond that. It was a look of shock

Then the class stopped their own laughter suddenly, as if a spell had spilled over them in a silent hush. Their faces become confused and troubled as they looked at the overhead screen. The room had turned into dead silence in just a matter of seconds.

"Ha!" said Sara. "What's wrong? Were you guys suddenly offended or what?" The class remained silent, not taking their eyes of the entry that was displayed on the board.

"What is it?" she asked finally in confusion.

Sara looked at Jenna and saw her mouth agape. Her eyes were wide with terror as she eyed the last entry of the page. Sara turned around to face the screen slowly, and she looked in horror along with everyone else at the last contents of Wendy's diary.

THAT HORRIBLE FEELING HAS COME OVER ME AGAIN, AND THIS TIME IT IS CLEAR.

SOMETHING HORRIBLE IS GOING TO HAPPEN.

I SEE A BIG IMPACT.

I SEE FIRE, AND DEATH.

SARA AND JENNA WILL BE KILLED IN A CAR CRASH ON THEIR WAY TO A NIGHT PARTY.

* * *

The host finishes typing his own entry on the laptop and presses the 'ctrl' and 's' buttons down simutaneously. 

"The story ends before the fates of Sara and Jenna are revealed. Unfortunately, it turned out that Wendy had not been able to warn them enough, and they were both involved in a fatal crash a week later while driving to one of their relative's house for a party. Were the girls' fates really seen by Wendy? Perhaps they were alarmed remembering the contents of Wendy's diary entry the week prior, and had driven in panic into their own demise. Or did Wendy foresee it as a psychic, as much as she foresaw the numerous events that had occured previously? When determining whether the story of the diary of unseen events is true or false, will you make your unknowing prediction, or have you already been seeing ahead to the truth of it?"

_Is this story true or false? We'll tell you at the end, but next, a favorite song of a person brings doom for her future, on Beyond Belief, Fact or Fiction._


End file.
